I have now been working on this for a month and it has been going quite well (even if I do say so myself). I wanted to share it with a larger audience than usually frequent RetroSoftware as I am running a little low on steam and wanted a wider opinion on whether it is really wanted.The video is a bit long, (as I was on a roll ) and not great quality. The game runs in Mode 1 on a standard BBC B at 50fps.

Thanks guys, for the first couple of weeks I worked on it for an hour or two every night, more at the weekends, but the last week, I've not done much and just wanted a little boost. Thanks, I think I've been avoiding trying to do the "walkers" that drop down, walk around and fly back up - I guess I've got no excuse not to do them now

EDIT PS Really just trying to distract a couple of you to give me a chance on the Hi-score challenge

I've been following your thread on RetroSoftware, really impressive how quickly you've put it together. I loved the arcade Phoenix so great to see such a good Beeb conversion. Well done, and please keep going...

I hope Tricky has a change of heart and continues as it was shaping up to be a great conversion that was not only technically impressive but fun to play too (which always helps!)

If anyone likes shoot 'em up games and hasn't taken a look - I'd definitely recommend downloading Tricky's works-in-progress. They are already quite playable and show some remarkable feats of tricky-ness like numerous large sprites moving fluidly with little or no sprite tear, huge moving motherships and 6 colours in a Mode 1 screen.

jbnbeeb

leenew wrote:I am gutted that Tricky has suddenly decided to stop work on this It seemed to be going so well.

I have been working on the two tunes that play during Phoenix.Here are three disk images with slightly different ways of playing the notes.Each disk starts with FurElise, then SpanishRomance, then repeats both before going on to the same version of the game that I posted before.What I would like is peoples opinions on which one sounds best and/or most authentic.I might try and add a second track with the lower notes, but this is it for now.

I'll try and find a better way to add the harmony, maybe syncing the waves (it should be possible).For now, here is the monophonic version with fixed walking bird death cries.Adding sound really brings back the memories, but now I see just how much more there is to do, still at least I have nearly 3K to do it in (if the counter is working).Keys are still Z,X, RETURN to FIRE and SHIFT (skip level until I add the shield).

It helps greatly, as I would never finish anything if I didn't think it was appreciated.I need to rip out most of the rendering and replace it with some from my AstroBlaster game to allow the swooping birds to swoop off the bottom of the screen and to make it fast enough to draw the birds that drop down and then walk around before flying back up without flickering (which I hate).I work in research helping to improve our GPU designs, so that is never really finished

I had to take most of the game apart and put it back together differently to get out of the corner I had coded myself into.I haven't finished putting things back together, but the first two waves are nearly working again.I have broken the scrolling and collision for the third and fourth waves, so you will probably have to SHIFT to get passed them.The fifth (boss) level is getting back to nearly working, but I have partially broken the destruction of the ship and level end.I have also introduce a few crash bugs, so you will probably need to restart!

Thanks for your continued work on this. You seem to be picking on some of my favourite 80's arcade games. First Astro Blaster and now Phoenix. How about doing Pleiades next? That'll cover my top 3 raster based games from the early 80's.

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools." - Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless.

Thanks, it isn't as arcade perfect as i would like. I coded myself into a corner and to fix it properly would be nearly a complete rewrite! I am taking a rather more pragmatic approach than i would normally as i doubt i will finish it if i start again.